Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.

So I am getting ready to move to Birmingham in June to complete my residency and I am coming down in a few weeks to look around for a place to live.

My boyfriend is going to come with me (He's never been to Alabama) and I would like to do something fun and show him that Alabama has something to offer (He's a bit iffy on moving there).

PLEASE help me out here....names of good places to eat unique to Birmingham...good places to go hang out....especially if there are places where we can drink beer and listen to some good original music etc. Any ideas would be appreciated. I just want him to have a good first impression of the place and I too would like to see more of what Birmingham has to offer! Thanks!!

So I am getting ready to move to Birmingham in June to complete my residency and I am coming down in a few weeks to look around for a place to live.

My boyfriend is going to come with me (He's never been to Alabama) and I would like to do something fun and show him that Alabama has something to offer (He's a bit iffy on moving there).

PLEASE help me out here....names of good places to eat unique to Birmingham...good places to go hang out....especially if there are places where we can drink beer and listen to some good original music etc. Any ideas would be appreciated. I just want him to have a good first impression of the place and I too would like to see more of what Birmingham has to offer! Thanks!!

The summit lifestyle center in Mountain Brook offers great shopping and restaurants, and Five Points South near UAB is a great nightlife and entertainment district. If you like malls the best two in the area are the Galleria and Brookwood.Those are my favorite places in the city I don't live there but visit often I'll let everybody else cover the other places.

This is for Black & White, the local entertainment paper. It has the scoop on all the things to do. By the way, April, May, and June are particularly nice times to visit. There are plenty of things to do: Birmingham Art Connection, Brunos Memorial Classic, Doo Dah Day, and City Stages (a must in June). Plus it lists all the clubs and the set lists.

I used to do a lot of session work, and am consistently surprised that a city of this size has such a good music scene. Plenty of good acts come through and, as opposed to Chicago and Cleveland where I come from, it's easier to get tickets.

As far as restaurants go, I've found no end of really good places to eat. Probably Highlands would be top of my list, along with Bottega, Ocean, Daniel George, Table and several dozen others. It would be really hard to go wrong with any of these.

Good luck! We've lived in Chicago, Cleveland, San Diego, and Baltimore. Except for the fact that there isn't a large body of water nearby, Birmingham has been our favorite place to live.

I don't really consider those "Large" bodies of water, he probably means coming from Chicago,Cleveland, San Diego and Baltimore something like Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, Pacific Ocean, or the Chesapeake Bay /Atlantic. The largest lakes and longest rivers in Alabama are in North Alabama. We are relatively close to the gulf but its still almost a four hour drive from Birmingham.

PLEASE help me out here....names of good places to eat unique to Birmingham...good places to go hang out....especially if there are places where we can drink beer and listen to some good original music etc. Any ideas would be appreciated. I just want him to have a good first impression of the place and I too would like to see more of what Birmingham has to offer! Thanks!!

This was a great post! Thanks for the good information. I just booked a room at the Hotel Highland because a few people have now recommended it...I hope it's as nice as it costs

Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.